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computus roll, and there that the original seal has been attached to a later copy of the original deed.* 'A remission and quit-claim of Thomas son of Walter Niger of Barking and his wife Beatrice to Cecilia of Sanford is interesting (says our author), because, though it ends with the words "testibus istis" and bears two seals on vellum tags, no witnesses' names are written, and the space for them remains blank.' The significance of this omission, it may be remarked, lies in the fact that the names of witnesses were frequently inserted without their knowledge or in their absence, a witness being & person prepared to give credit to the fact stated in the deed, not necessarily one who had seen it executed. In this particular case, it may perhaps be presumed that, as he was giving up something, Thomas son of Walter Niger was indifferent whether he had any witnesses or not. Perhaps he left this part of the transaction to Cecilia of Sanford.

Sir Norman Moore is equally interested in the writers of the documents, and has some delightful and suggestive pages on the clerks who attested last and sometimes state that they had written the deeds. William de Ripa, vicar of St Sepulchre, sometimes wrote the St Bartholo mew deeds in the early part of Henry III's reign; and Alexander of Smithfield, a somewhat younger man, wrote a great many. Alexander wrote a beautiful simple hand; and his manuscripts may easily be recognised even if he does not describe himself as scriptor or write his name at all. The character of a handwriting depended not merely on the period but on the writer.' This was equally true of the professional copyists who worked side by side with the booksellers, bookbinders and parchment makers. Any one who turns over a number of medieval books will notice the different methods of marking the 'quaterni' or gatherings. He may see indications of price and other marks which suggest that booksellers may have had their own methods of storing or identifying books. Certainly every copyist had his idiosyncrasies. John Cok, whose work we have already noticed, sometimes fell

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*

i, 188-9. The same is probably true of the charter reproduced at p. 89. †Thayer, A Preliminary Treatise on Evidence at the Common Law' (1898), pp. 97 foll. Mr.C. G. Crump has recently reminded students of this in, History,' April 1919, vol. IV, p. 47.

to the way of copying the handwriting as well as the xt of the manuscript before him. "

As he writes of Alexander of Smithfield, and of the ookshop of Michael the clerk on Ludgate Hill adjoing the church of St Martin, the pride of the old Irish Titers seems to stir in the blood of Sir Norman Moore. e remembers how Eugene O'Curry, 'who might have en no more than a perfect transcriber of medieval anuscripts, became learned in their contents.' 'It is ght,' he continues, 'to think of all workers upon manuripts and books as part of the world of letters.' In our own day printers and photographers have lped Sir Norman Moore to prepare a beautiful book. is not a perfect craftsman. He will summarise a cument on one page and print it in full several pages ter. He will explain some allusions at length and pass others. He is inclined to play the wilful amateur, and rite about the Earl of Mortaigne' or 'Moreton' instead the simple and correct 'Count of Mortain.' He is metimes a little too fanciful, forgetting that in the construction of the past, fancy and imagination are les asunder. But the specialist who is seriously noyed by these defects will be a very arid specialist deed. Rather he will envy the author his easy style d his apt and kindly learning. It is good to think how is active, busy, many-sided man, face to face each day ith the tragic wastage of a great city, has found joy in adies so often despised and more frequently misunderod. He has shown that the interest in the past of ll living things can become a part of our daily duty wards them and can help us not to grow weary in ing it.

F. M. POWICKE.

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Art. 8.-HOME RULE AND LABOUR IN CATALONIA. WHEN the King of Spain entrusts a political leader with the task of forming a new Cabinet, he sometimes hands him an undated royal decree dissolving the Cortes. This document is of paramount importance in Spanish politics. To have or not to have el decreto makes all the difference between a long life or a brief one to a Ministry. The President of the Council can easily with that paper secure a majority in the Cortes; for he only needs to date it, publish it, and fix the time for a fresh general election. In such an election the Cabinet inevitably wins, for the Minister of the Interior makes the encasillado that is to say, he distributes posts to the deputies in the interest of the Cabinet. In this work he is successfully helped in the provinces by that all-powerful personage (the equivalent in Spain of the American boss) called el cacique. Excepting in the few cases in which the cacique himself is an opposition candidate and must be respected, the majority of votes in a constituency is generally, by some means or other, obtained by the Government.

During the late war only one general election took place that of 1918. The Government made such a profusion of promises that a few had to be kept. It should be added that Señor Dato, whose Cabinet left power shortly before, had pretty well advanced the labour of the encasillado, naturally to his own advantage The result was that the Government ran the risk-a rare occurrence in this country-of being defeated. Never theless, a small majority was secured by Señor Garcia Prieto, President of the Council; and Señor Dato obtained a fair representation of about 100 deputies.

Count Romanones, as Prime Minster in the late Gov ernment, controlled the votes of scarcely thirty deputies Nevertheless it was his first task to get Parliament to approve the budget; for Spain, for several years, ha had no budget voted by the Cortes, and the Governmen has had to depend, for meeting its financial obligations

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*Cacique is a word which the Spanish conquerors of the 16th centur took from the Indians of Mexico and the Antilles. It means an India chief, lord of a small territory.

n royal decrees authorising the use, for a limited time, f the old budget, or on demands of credits addressed to he Council of State, which has not always a clear right grant them. Such a situation was of course most regular. It was complicated by grave disturbances, -otably by the agitation called sindicalista in Catalonia abour troubles, threatening a revolutionary outbreak), nd by a similarly anarchical state of affairs in Andasia and other districts.

It was in these circumstances that the question of atonomy for Catalonia arose. The claim for this was ot presented to Count Romanones, but to an ephemeral abinet led by Señor Garcia Prieto. The Catalonian ancomunidad (an official body created by Señor Dato) aimed home rule for Catalonia and came to Madrid to mand it, after having secured the votes of a great imber of Catalonian Municipalities. Señor Puig y dafalch, president of the Mancomunidad, said to ñor Garcia Prieto, upon handing him the petition: f we cannot return to Barcelona with a satisfactory swer, allow us to return, at least, with some hopes.' ñor Garcia Prieto replied that he would give the matter reful attention; but no sooner had the commissioners ken the train back to Barcelona than he published the tition. This caused a tremendous sensation and alarm all Castile. The Catalonians were openly accused of ming at the independence of their province and its paration from Spain. Charges of treachery and hypoisy were made against them. Garcia Prieto resigned, d scarcely had Count Romanones taken the oath at the lace and formed his Cabinet, when a great concourse raded the streets, shouting 'Death to Catalonia,' and aping upon the Catalonians insults like those so lavishly stowed on the revolted Cubans from 1895 to 1898.

The demonstrators stopped before the building of Presidency, and a Committee delivered to Count manones the protests drawn up by several Chambers Commerce and the representatives of industrial inrests in the rest of Spain, with the exception of the sque provinces, which are themselves claiming home le.

The number of demonstrators has been varisly estimated at from 40,000 to 100,000; at all events e gathering was large and influential. Romanones

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answered that no Spanish Government would ever allow the separation from Spain of a part of the national territory, and promised that the matter should be solved by the Cortes. The Cortes met shortly after, and the Catalonian question was immediately taken up. The Catalonian deputies, with exceptions-such as that of Señor Maciá, who openly declared himself in favour of the complete separation of Catalonia from Spain, which he stig matised as moribund, and a few others belonging to other parties-attended, firmly united in the purpose of supporting the project of the Mancomunidad. A few days after the session began, the Catalonian leader, Señor Cambó, rose in the Chamber, and announced, to the great surprise of all, that the Catalonian deputies, seeing the hostile attitude of the assembly-which had warmly applauded a speech made by Señor Maura-were going to withdraw in a body, rather than allow a long and futile discussion to take place, with the inevitable result of the rejection of their petition. Thereupon he walked out, followed by the deputies of Catalonia and the Republicans who had joined them.

Romanones protested, and announced the Govern ment's decision to settle the question. He appointed an 'extra-Parliamentary Commission,' including the most important politicians of all parties, Señor Maura among them, to frame a scheme of home rule for Catalonia. But the Mancomunidad was not satisfied with such a step. It declared that no Home Rule Bill for Catalonia would be accepted, if it were not drawn up by the Catalonians themselves; and it met at once to prepare another scheme, called estatuto, for submission to the Cortes. This was done. The two bills were prepared, showing, of course, important differences. That of the 'extra-Parliamentary Commission' is a fair grant of liberal institutions and rights, but of course from a Spanish point of view, and allowing for the keeping of an important part of the control of Catalonian affairs in the hands of the Central Government. The scheme of the Mancomunidad is almost the constitution of a new state, free and independent, allowing a minimum of interference by the Spanish Government in the local administration. The Catalonian deputies returned to the Cortes to defend their bill. The Government insisted upon the

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